For once something positive to report:

After months of deadlock, the Doha round of global trade talks has taken a big step forward, thanks largely to an abstruse but important deal over agricultural tariffs….On May 4th, negotiators from America, the European Union, Brazil, India and Australia hammered out a formula for converting specific tariffs on agricultural goods, such as 10 cents per pound in weight, into percentage (or so-called ad valorem) tariffs.

Measuring all tariffs as a percentage of the goods? value is a prerequisite for further progress in talks about reducing trade barriers for agricultural goods. Under the broad outline for the farm-trade talks agreed last summer, countries pledged to divide their tariff barriers into different tiers. Higher tariffs will be cut more than lower ones. Not surprisingly, those countries that protect their farmers most wanted a conversion formula that translated specific tariffs into lower percentages, as that would imply smaller cuts down the road. In the end, the deal was based on a compromise proposal made by the European Union.
Source: The Economist

Obviously this is a dense technical issue, but the good news is that the EU has moved to break the deadlock. The slightly ironic detail is that the meeting where the agreement was ironed-out was held in Paris with the French referendum campaign as a background. Still I suppose this puts the suggestions that current EU policy is being driven exclusively by the needs of obtaining a ‘yes’ vote in some sort of context.

Also, as the Economist notes there is plenty yet to do. In the first place all the details on agriculture have still to be worked out. And then there is the tricky question of services……………